Preville on Politics

I am battery recycling’s nemesis

Posted on March 13, 2008 by Philip Preville

Wednesday’s Globe and Mail was up in arms over a proposal by Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker, chair of the public works committee, to create a deposit-return system for batteries in order to keep them out of landfills. In his column, John Barber explains the root of the proposal’s inanity: Queen’s Park will soon be establishing its own province-wide system to divert such materials. The provincial system will be voluntary and deposit-free and involve many drop-off locations. Alas, this is why it won’t work, and I present myself as Exhibit A to prove my point: I am in the habit of tossing used batteries into the trash, and I can’t be bothered to behave differently.

You can shame me for my environmental sin all you want, but given that more than 5,000 tonnes of non-rechargeable batteries are sold in Ontario every year yet only 204 tonnes are collected, it appears that most Ontarians behave the same way, and anyone who is serious about solving this problem has to go through me and my ilk. Why am I so intransigent? Because my life is busy and I have a young family and I’m self-absorbed and I really can’t be bothered worrying about how dead batteries toxify landfills, because really, isn’t that the point of landfills? Last time I checked, most landfills are engineered with multiple layers of underground membranes for the precise purpose of keeping such leachate problems under control. I am a dutiful household waste sorter, but battery disposal involves an extra effort that I can’t be bothered to integrate into my routine.

What’s most frustrating about both the drop-off and deposit-return options is the extent to which neither is designed for the end-user. Depots, special-event battery-return days, pricing mechanisms—they’re all just a bunch of additional things (things a witty friend once labelled “annoya”) for me to keep track of when my little used-battery pail starts overflowing. And the truth is that De Baeremaeker’s option would be the most annoying, but it would also be the most effective, since it promises me a payback in exchange for the disruption to my routine. The provincial plan essentially admits to its own ineffectiveness: its target for collection, after the first five years of the program, is a mere 25 per cent of all batteries sold, which is pitiful.

Either way, neither city hall nor Queen’s Park is really trying to make it truly easy—I mean zero-time-commitment, zero-brainpower, zero-hassle easy—which is the best way to get people to recycle. The easiest solution would be to let me toss them into my blue bin, but alas, the hydraulic presses in the garbage trucks might crush them en route to the sorting station, unleashing a toxic slurry down the conveyor belts. Next best option: I’ll seal them in a Ziploc bag and put them atop the lid of my soon-to-be-issued, spanking-new recycling bin, and the city can outfit its trash fleet with separate containers that would allow them to collect the batteries without crushing them. That way I could put them out for collection any time I want. Other municipalities, incidentally, do exactly this.

De Baeremaeker says the biggest reason for not collecting batteries at curbside is the price. Even with money granted under the province’s new plan, he says, Toronto taxpayers would still be on the hook for part of the cost. “Under a deposit-return system, it would cost taxpayers virtually nothing,” he says. “We in the public sector are forever dancing around how to collect someone else’s toxic material when we could just hand it back to them.” De Baeremaeker makes the act of returning your spent batteries sound like an act of protest—take that, corporate battery conglomerate!—but I’m sure that thrill would wear off fast.

If cost is the issue, then the city should collect them at curbside, gather them up, and hand them back to the industry along with an invoice for collection services. The existing collection system ought to be able to adapt, especially for something that is such a staple of the waste stream. The bottom line is that my current habits involve taking my used batteries no further than my curb, and the most successful recycling solution will be one that keeps it that way.

Comments

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Christine May 8, 2008 at 10:52 a.m.

I entirely agree with the author that it is indeed a big hassle for an end-user to adhere to the policy to drop off used batteries to the far and few drop off locations. I do not drive, making my trip to make such a deposit even less convenient. I have been keeping dead batteries, with the hope that I could find a deposit station close to home. I live in a condominium, and I suggest that if each condo places a collection box near an elevator, or one corner of the lobby, residents would be encouraged to dispose of dead batteries, and it will work much better than the current system.

It would then be the city's responsibility to device a plan to collect dead batteries from each household, without causing too much inconvenience to the citizens.

Otherwise, I am afraid that eventually, when I have accumulated too many batteries but without a convenient deposit location, I would be tempted to dump them all into my garbage bin.

Dimce May 13, 2008 at 8:18 a.m.

I would suggest that the big retail stores who are selling batteries, should also have drop of boxes.

The users of the old batteries will be encouraged to buy new ones in the same place where they are disposing the old batteries....
There is a business incentive for stores who are willing to join this initiative.
On the end it's a win-win situation.

Michael June 3, 2008 at 3:21 p.m.

Philip
I understand that it can be inconvenient to deal with used batteries, and I agree that there should be a system put in place to make it easier, but isn't there such a thing as consumer responsibility? You purchased the product, you used the product, you are aware of its environmental effects, therefore you have a responsibility to dispose of the product in a way that won't destroy the planet anymore than it already has.

You argue that you're too busy to return batteries, but are you? You weren't too busy to go out and buy them, you weren't too busy to put them in your remote and sit in front of the TV. Take 10 minutes out of your day and dispose of them properly. It's not like you have to do it every week. You probably won't even have to do once a year. How hard is it to keep a box of dead batteries?

Granted, I have committed my own fair share of environmental sin, and it can be difficult at times to stay "green", but the kind of apathy you seem to celebrate here is absolutely not okay. People need to start taking responsibility for the products they use.

Jim July 9, 2008 at 3:44 p.m.

I have to say that this is a sore subject for many. It is true that the inconvenient nature of recycling batteries certainly causes many to be simply dumped into the trash. Maybe it's laziness, maybe it's inconvenience, but whatever the reason, Phil you are right that it needs to be made easier. On the "green" side of things I have a suggestion for one item where an alternative exists that pollutes nothing. That is in the case of backup sump pumps. Since there are currently only two types available, shouldn't we be looking more closely at water powered systems over battery powered systems? A water powered system uses only a moderate amount of water WHEN it runs, and nothing when it is off (which is most of the time). A battery powered system will use electricity daily to keep the charger working and eventually that battery has to be replaced and disposed of. That battery also emits small amounts of toxic fumes into the home. Granted these are small and normal ventilation prevents it from being hazardous, yet it is toxic and it is waste. We don't get very upset about the daily use of water in our homes. Why get all worked up over the minimal use of potable water to prevent damage to our basements? It does not become "polluted" as we use it this way; it merely goes into the storm drain and back into the water supply, not into the sewage treatment system. See www.basepump.com for more information.


Author Bio Pic

Philip Preville

Veteran freelance writer Philip Preville lived much of his life in Montreal and Edmonton before he was lured, like so many Torontonians before him, by the promise of more work and a better living. A National Magazine Award winner and former Canadian Journalism Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Massey College, Preville writes Toronto Life’s politics column. He lives with his wife and one-year-old son in Riverdale, just close enough to the Don Valley Parkway that he can hear it when he steps outside his house—but just far enough away that it doesn’t keep him awake at night. On his office wall hangs a 1938–39 press pass belonging to his grandfather, Elias Gannon, who wrote for the Montreal Star.


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